Here’s my review of 2018. It was a dicey year for me, with some bright spots. I’ll start with the Attack. Those of you who follow me on Facebook and Twitter—and I posted a blog on WordPress, but took it down for legal reasons—know that in July, 2018 I was violently attacked on a sunny summer afternoon while I was walking around beautiful Lake Merritt in Oakland, California.
A man literally sprang out of the flowering bushes and confronted me on the sidewalk. He tried to beat me up, drawing his fist back to punch me in the face. I fended him off, then he shoved me down a pedestrian walkway into two lanes of oncoming traffic. I shuffled my feet to avoid plunging into the traffic and fell on my right hip on the concrete street curb. The Oakland police apprehended and arrested him. I took an ambulance ride to the hospital, was x-rayed and informed that I had a fractured right hip and broken right femur. Early in the morning the next day, I underwent three hours’ of surgery under general anesthetic.
It’s been a long, brutal six months since then, but as of January 1, 2019, I am walking without a walker or a cane. I’m not as mobile as I used to be. I’m working on that, doing physical therapy every day. I’ve gone grocery shopping with my husband three times, going into the market without a cane (but leaning on a shopping cart). I still have pain, especially in my knee, but I’m walKING! Thrilled about that. And I’m about a third of the way through a nonfiction book inspired by the ordeal and some issues that cropped up as a result. I hope to be done with the piece in 2020. It’s called Sticks and Stones Will Break My Bones.

Now for the good news:
“Aurelia” was published in the January-February 2018 issue of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Here’s one review: https://alexclarkmcg.wordpress.com/page/4/Jan 23rd, 2018, Aurelia by Lisa Mason, Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine, Jan/Feb 2018
“Another fantastic piece in what is shaping up to be a fantastic issue of F&SF. While the last piece I read out of this issue, The Equationist by J.D. Moyer, was my favorite story out of the issue at the time, it will have to share the podium with this gem as well–though I like them for very different reasons.
Aurelia is the story of a debaucherous lawyer who is presented with the woman of his dreams. She lives in a manner overlooking the San Francisco Bay, and but a nefarious person is trying to buy her property. She hires the protagonist, Robert, to be her lawyer, but quickly seduces him–though as he is looking for a wife to make himself look more respectable than he already is–the seduction is mutual. They are married within a month, and their sex is like nothing Robert has experienced.
However, Robert still hungers for sexual relations with nearly every woman he comes into contact with. He cheats on his wife with his psychologist, with the intern, with the lowly tax attorney when he is away on a work trip.
And that isn’t all that’s wrong either. Aurelia, Robert’s wife, has an art studio above the garage. He has only been inside once, and only with her permission. It holds a sense of decay and has burlap twine crisscrossing it so that you have to duck and weave around it. Everything about this studio is wrong, in comparison to everything about the manor next door. It is decadent and majestic, while the studio is decaying and dark.
That’s a pretty good set up. Obviously, Aurelia isn’t what she seems, and there are lots of hints along the way for readers to figure out what will happen before it does.
It is a gothic tale, but also rather fairy tale-esk in the telling. A thoroughly enjoyable experience from a writer I’ll certainly look for in the future.” (A)

Finally, “The Bicycle Whisperer” was published in the May-June 2018 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Here’s one review http://sfbookreview.blogspot.com/2018/05/mayjune-2018-fantasy-and-science-fiction.html “Simon’s bicycle runs away. He hires the Lone Rangerette to find her, which she does. LR finds Shimano Stella, calms her down and asks her whether she has run away to get away or to get attention. A lot of story packed into five pages.”

Forthcoming in 2019 is a story “Taiga” in the April 2019 digest of Not One of Us, edited by John Benson. And the REALLY BIG NEWS is that my new high-concept SF novel, CHROME, will be available for pre-order on May 21, 2019 and go on sale on September 24, 2019!

So there you have it, my friends. More stories and novels are on the way!

If you would like to receive Lisa Mason’s quarterly newsletter, New Book News, please respond by email to lisasmason@aol.com, enter “Add Me” on the subject line, and it shall be done. You may unsubscribe at any time.

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It’s been four months since a man violently attacked me as I was walking around Lake Merritt in Oakland, California in the afternoon, fracturing my hip. Now I’m up and walking, using a quad cane sometimes, but mostly unaided around the house. Feeling much, much better and much more energetic. So I’ll be blogging here again after a period of recuperation (if you like the British spelling, include an “o”).

“Arachne is a unique entry in the cyberpunk genre. It steps between the dystopia of William Gibson and the otherworldliness of Philip K. Dick.
Full of ‘almost’ body-horror, corporations so mega that they transact court cases in nanoseconds, and AI characters with more spiritualism in their circuits than the humans that inhabit this post Big-One San Francisco.A must-read for cyberpunk fans!”https://www.libreture.com/library/kevin/book/arachne/

And this on Twitter: @nate_smith I loved Cyberweb 🙂 Do you think you’ll write a sequel, ever? I’m an unabashed Pr. Spinner fanboy. To which I replied @lisaSmason Thank you! I appreciate your readership! Yes, Spyder, the third book in the Arachne trilogy, is in the works.

ARACHNE is my first novel, an expansion of the short story, also titled “Arachne”, which I published in OMNI magazine. The book was published in hard cover by William Morrow, reprinted in trade paperback by Eos and in mass market paperback by AvoNova. The book was also published in Japan by Hayakawa, and the short story was translated and published in various foreign anthologies. ARACHNE debuted in the top ten books on the Locus Hardcover Bestseller list. Here’s the review and the reviewer’s website link. The book links—print and ebook—follow below.

Here’s the book description:

High above the dangerous streets of post-quake San Francisco Island, mechanically modified professionals link minds in a cybernetic telespace to push through big deals and decisions at lightning speed. But unexplained telelink blackouts and bizarre hallucinations have marred mediator Carly Quester’s debut appearance before a computer-generated Venue—forcing her to consider delicate psychic surgery at the hands of a robot therapist, Prober Spinner. And suddenly the ambitious young mediator is at risk in a deadly Artificial Intelligence scheme to steal human souls—because the ghosts of Carly’s unconscious may be a prize well worth killing for.

“In humanity’s daring to enter the cybernetic heaven (and hell) of telespace, Lisa Mason reveals the lineaments of all that is tragic and transcendent in our evolution. Once the journey into this vivid and terrifying future has begun, there is no returning until the infinite has been faced and the last word read.”
–David Zindell, Author of Neverness

“Cybernetics, robotics, the aftermath of San Francisco’s Big Quake II, urban tribalism—Lisa Mason combines them all with such deftness and grace, they form a living world. Mason spins an entertaining tale . . . She allows Carly’s robotic allies a measure of personality and sophistication beyond the stock role of a chirping R2D2 or a blandly sinister Hal . . . Her characters and their world will stay with you long after you’ve finished this fine book.”
–Locus, The Trade Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy

“Lisa Mason stakes out, within the cyberpunk sub-genre, a territory all her own.”
–The San Francisco Chronicle

“Mason’s endearing characters and their absorbing adventures will hook even the most jaded SF fan.”
–Booklist

“Arachne is an impressive debut by a writer gifted with inventiveness, wit, and insight. The characters face choices well worth reading about. This is cyberpunk with a heart.”
–Nancy Kress, Author of Brain Rose

“There is a refreshing amount of energy associated with Lisa Mason’s writing. The good old values are there: fun, excitement, drama—but served up with new and original twists. Lisa Mason is definitely a writer to watch—and to read.”
–Paul Preuss, Author of Venus Prime

“Lisa Mason must be counted among science fiction’s most distinctive voices as we rush toward the new millennium.”
–Ed Bryant

“Mason’s endearing characters and their absorbing adventures will hook even the most jaded SF fan.”–Booklist

If you would like to receive Lisa Mason’s quarterly newsletter, New Book News, please respond by email to lisasmason@aol.com, enter “Add Me” on the subject line, and it shall be done. You may unsubscribe at any time.

If you enjoy a title, please “Like” it, add five stars, WRITE A REVIEW on the site where you bought it, Tweet it, blog it, post it, and share the word with your family and friends.

The seven books by New York Times Notable Book AuthorLisa Mason are now offered as newly reissued beautiful trade paperbacks and distributed by Barnes and Noble, as well as on Amazon! All are also ebooks available on retailers worldwide, along with Mason’s other titles that are ebooks only.
Shop the Internet from the comfort of your home or office or the convenience of wherever you are with your mobile device!
Please click on the title to view the book cover, a book description, and more reviews.

As you can see below, I’ve got lots of stories and novellas, a screenplay and a miniseries, Celestial Girl (A Lily Modjeska Mystery), online as ebooks. Check it out! Celestial Girl will be a trade paperback as soon as we figure out the logistics. And a second story collection, Oddities, is forthcoming.

If you would like to receive Lisa Mason’s quarterly newsletter, New Book News, please respond by email to lisasmason@aol.com, enter “Add Me” on the subject line, and it shall be done. You may unsubscribe at any time.

If you enjoy a title, please “Like” it, add five stars, WRITE A REVIEW on the site where you bought it, Tweet it, blog it, post it, and share the word with your family and friends.

Below are the eligibility requirements for the CreateSpace Direct program:
1. You or your business must be a licensed business and provide an active reseller certification.
2. Titles must be enrolled in the CreateSpace Direct channel within Expanded Distribution (ED) to be eligible for wholesale prices. Each member is responsible for enrolling their own titles in this channel.
[Note: all Lisa Mason titles are (or will be) enrolled in Expanded Distribution.]

Retail orders for books not enrolled in the CreateSpace Direct channel will be subject to sales tax.

If you would like to receive Lisa Mason’s quarterly newsletter, New Book News, please respond by email to lisasmason@aol.com, enter “Add Me” on the subject line, and it shall be done. You may unsubscribe at any time.

If you enjoy a title, please “Like” it, add five stars, WRITE A REVIEW on the site where you bought it, Tweet it, blog it, post it, and share the word with your family and friends.

We’re so excited! The seven books by New York Times Notable Book Author Lisa Mason we are offering as newly reissued beautiful trade paperbacks are now distributed by Barnes and Noble, as well as on Amazon! All are also ebooks available on retailers worldwide, along with Mason’s other titles that are ebooks only.Shop the Internet from the comfort of your home or office or the convenience of wherever you are with your mobile device!
Please click on the title to view the book cover, a book description, and more reviews.

As you can see below, I’ve got lots of stories and novellas, a screenplay and a miniseries, Celestial Girl (A Lily Modjeska Mystery), online as ebooks. Check it out! Celestial Girl will be a trade paperback as soon as we figure out the logistics.

If you would like to receive Lisa Mason’s quarterly newsletter, New Book News, please respond by email to lisasmason@aol.com, enter “Add Me” on the subject line, and it shall be done. You may unsubscribe at any time.

If you enjoy a title, please “Like” it, add five stars, WRITE A REVIEW on the site where you bought it, Tweet it, blog it, post it, and share the word with your family and friends.

We are offering seven books by New York Times Notable Book Author Lisa Mason newly reissued as beautiful trade paperbacks for the year-round book-buying season. All are also ebooks available on retailers worldwide.
Shop the Internet from the comfort of your home or office or the convenience of wherever you are with your mobile device!
Please click on the title to view the book cover, a book description, and more reviews.

If you would like to receive Lisa Mason’s quarterly newsletter, New Book News, please respond by email to lisasmason@aol.com, enter “Add Me” on the subject line, and it shall be done. You may unsubscribe at any time.

My cover artist and I were so happy with the way these new covers came out that we’ve already planned the color scheme for the cover of the third book in the Arachne trilogy. Actually, he said to me, “While we’re hot on this project, let’s just do the third book cover. You’ve got the title, we’ve got the colors, let’s go!”

I said, “There’s just one small problem. Two small problems. I haven’t written the book yet so I don’t have a page count. (You must have an exact page count to the measure the spine in millimeters of an inch.) And I haven’t written the book yet so I don’t have a book description for the back cover.”

He said (and I quote), “So just make something up!”

The final book in what is turning out to be a trilogy is SPYDER. Yes, I have notes and an outline. No, I haven’t started the book yet. I keep saying “yet.” Because I’m working on new stories and books to sell. So we shall see.

The first covers, done by William Morrow Publishing for the hardcovers, were kind of fun but essentially atrocious. I’m not even sure I want to scan them to show you. You can find them on Amazon. Basically, both book covers featured a scantily woman with a bare cleavage grappling with a robot. (My editor at the time was a man.)

Both Arachne and Cyberweb feature a heroine with a brain and a backbone. Both books are a serious analysis of Jungian philosophy of the human mind and the unconscious melded with what is still, to this day, cutting-edge theory of artificial intelligence and virtual reality. There is my trade-marked humor to keep some moments light. And there is bad sex. But still, the books aren’t about cleavage. Maybe the covers were more about New York publishing’s perception of women’s science fiction.

Fans noticed the discrepancy between my serious themes and the raunchy covers. See Goodreads for the various reader reviews.

The new Bast Book covers capture, I think, the brutal urban setting of the books, the soulessness of heroine Carly Quester’s first endeavors there, and her harrowing conflicts with hostile AI entities that ensue. (This is a photo we’ve got of the foot of Market Street in downtown San Francisco.) The matched set, and the third book to come, remind us of the Black Lizard Press reprints of Raymond Chandler’s novels, the same size and also with evocative, nonrepresentational covers.

I prefer book covers that don’t feature an artist’s attempt to depict the characters. Romance books and some fantasy books usually depict human faces on the cover. For mainstream books and especially for books that are serious, though, the covers are often nonrepresentational and symbolic. Even the covers of the Twilight books, before the movies gave actors’ faces to the characters, were symbolic. And effective.

So there you have, my friends. Click on the title for reviews and more.